FCMP Outdoor - The Essential Living Composter, 2-Tray Worm Vermicomposter Bin (HF-LC4000v2-GRY) Grey

This was extremely easy to setup and get going. It's pretty sturdy and built well. It was easy to get the bedding going, as you can see in the photo. I lucked out with finding a neighbor who was moving and needed to rehome his worms. I took them in and they're doing really well. It doesn't smell at all, and I've had no problems with escaping worms or mites. I'd just say that it does attract fruit flies, so we moved the unit into a shaded part of our backyard for now and have only brought it in when there have been bad storms. The spout is great for collecting the worm tea, though the filter can get clogged easily so keep an eye on it. But, the tea didn't even smell (I've heard that can be an issue for some people with vermicomposters.) This is so much easier than taking everything to our big compost pile and waiting months to use it on our garden. Overall, seriously happy with this investment and just need to figure out how to buy another tray or two to add in!

This is my first time vermicomposting, so I don’t have a lot of experience but I thought this bin was perfect. Very easy to set up, comes with starter bedding and coconut coir to get you started. It also looks very nice, absolutely no one would know that I have 1000+ worms in my apartment. I’ve had this bin for about 3 months and my worms are thriving, I’m getting compost, and no smell! For context I live in a 2 person apartment so no leaves or yard scraps being added to the bin. Just weekly cooking scraps and some small garden trimmings.

I did a lot of shopping for worm farms and I chose this one because I liked the materials it was made out of and other positive reviews. I saw on another one of their product reviews that someone put a screen on the bottom before adding the dirt and worms. I am glad I did that because a think the worms could potentially fall through the holes if I didn't. I wish I would have taken a pic but we were too excited to put it together! The first night I did have a couple "escapees" but I think that is pretty normal since they were new and did not have any food yet. since feeding them, I have not had any issues. I think there is sufficient air flow, but if I have issues, I may drill some holes and put a screen over the holes. Instructions were clear and easy to follow I also like how I can add more levels as it grows. I chose to not buy the bigger one first because I wasn't sure how this would go, so far so good! My 3 year old is loving helping and feeding the worms!

Love this worm bin. Holds a lot of worms. Pretty sturdy. Didn’t love the filter area and how to use that part- it kept getting clogged with solids for me and then just being messy. But I love how nice these look and I felt like the price was worth it. To grow a worm farm this is easy to set up and use. I have recommended to people.

I will say, I’ve grown to love this thing. It was a rough start, though, and I think if this came with a good, comprehensive pamphlet on vermiculture best practices and tips, it would have saved me a lot of headache instead of having to do the research myself. I’ve had this for about three months now. If you’re thinking about buying this and you’re a first timer, like I am, I’d suggest a couple tips. 1. Take it slow. I know it’s hard to fight the urge to load it up with all your veggies, but seriously listen when they say to wait a week, then small bits at a time. The consequence of loading it up with tons of stuff, like I did, was an insane (like that scene in The Green Mile) infestation of fruit flies that took me a month to get rid of. I’ll be traumatized for a while from that experience. I was literally vacuuming them out of the air all throughout my house, literally hundreds a day (I counted) for weeks. So, don’t do that. It was disgusting and I very nearly threw the worm bin away. 2. Buy more worms. I went cheap and got a 250 at first, because I didn’t want to pay for more than that. But they just couldn’t keep up with our waste (two adults). I ended up buying 500 more, and after that, things have been going great because it can process my waste more quickly, which is another fruit fly preventative measure. If I had to do it over again, I’d probably have just gotten 1,000. I was worried to get too many because I thought there would be worms everywhere, but the self-contained system won’t allow for overpopulation. 3. Read up on fruit fly prevention first, and be proactive. Covering the top layer with a sheet of wet newspaper helped a lot, chopping waste into tiny pieces allows the worms to eat faster. I also have a small separate closed container to keep my scraps until I think my worms are ready for them—it’s way easier to manage the ecosystem. And neem oil is a good organic solution to prevent flies—I spray a bit on there once a month or so. Not too much. So, all that said, once I figured out how to actively prevent fruit flies, it’s really easy. Once you get the worms going, it’s very low maintenance. And fun to see baby worms and stuff. The worms don’t actually need to be fed that often. I feed them probably once every two or three weeks, and throw in paper scraps and stuff here and there. You can keep your scraps in the freezer if you want—just make sure they’re room temp before you put them in.

This thing is just fantastic. If you want a worm farm, this is it. Clean, easy to maintain, well made, unobtrusive kinda cool looking and it makes vermiculture fun. My worms are thriving!

Love this worm bin. I got this for my daughter’s 5th birthday — only “per” we could handle in our apartment right now, good lessons in sustainability, life science, but especially worm multiplication. It doesn’t compost too many scraps — we eat a lot of produce — but at least some. We’ve also observed the different ways different scraps break down, the molds that grow. Many mango pits were sprouting, so we planted one and have a mango seedling now. There is no smell at all outside the bin (and only the smell of fresh castings inside). We haven’t had any vermin or insects. The internal environment of the bin is pretty stable. I was worried when we left to travel during winter, when our apartment is overheated and dry, but the worms did fine. It looks elegant, like a piece of furniture. Some worms do make their way down to the empty bottom tray and die, but very few. Most are happy in their tray. We only now filled the second tray and are preparing to harvest the first (could’ve done it months ago, but life’s been busy). Can’t wait to repot my plants with this beautiful fertilizer. I’ve had a DIY outdoor worm bin before, and this one is so much easier to manage. Totally worth the purchase. Like others have said, starts slow, don’t over-feed, have plenty of worms, keep your dry and wet materials in balance (I do like to splurge on a worm blanket once on a while — cardboard does the trick, but I love a good worm blanket). Happy worm-raising!

Update: After using mosquito bits, moving the bin to the garage, and always freezing food scraps before feeding, I no longer have issues fruit flies. The gap is also big enough for worms to crawl through so if you have more temperamental worms such as the blue worm, they can escape. During rainy season I find a couple of dead worms on the floor every day. Other than the issue with the gaps, the bin is solid and well made so I have upped the rating to 3 stars. Original review: I have been worm composting for several years in a diy bin and was excited to finally get a proper worm bin. It was very easy to assemble and use. Unfortunately it seems to provide a very conducive environment for fruit flies! I always had a couple fruit flies here and there in my bin but never a big problem. After just one feeding in this bin it EXPLODED with fruit flies. It was an infestation. Thin bin has tons of gaps and openings for fruit flies to enter and exit freely. So. Gross! It caused me so much stress and I had to purchase several products to try to control the problem. In my DIY bin I covered all air holes with cloth. I don’t even know how to do that with this bin. The holes and gaps are between the lid and tray. Poor design.

I love this set up so much! The worms really do migrate to the top level when the bottom one is full and this makes getting the waste material so much easier than just using a single layer bin. The bin holds a lot of red wiggler worms. If you are purchasing them, starting with the standard bag they sell would be perfect. Final thoughts, this is a great set up for kids, small spaces, and for teaching about composting. I initially bought one for my work with adults who have intellectual disabilities and loved it so much I bought one for me. I've had worm composters in the past and they were cumbersome and eventually I gave up. This one makes it easy to use and care for, I have no issues with odor or bugs, and I can see when the worms are migrating up. Very exciting 😊

Im Winter bin ich zu faul den Kaffeesatz, die Eierschalen und die Bananenschalen in den Garten zu tragen. (Alles andere kommt in den Biomüll). Der so entstandene Dünger ruht darin bis zum Frühjahr auf dem Balkon und wird dann an die Pflanzen ausgebracht. Ich habe das Produkt ohne Würmer genutzt, die sind im Garten. Die Farbe war auch ausschlaggebend, denn die Welt hat Angst vor LILA und weigert sich im Beige-Grau-Wahn Farbe herzustellen. Endlich Lila!

Esta algo costosa pero esta bonita y bien diseñada, sirve muy bien para espacios cerrados y pequeños como departamentos, si sabes realizar composta, NO DEBERIA OLER, si tu composta huele como mencionan otros comentarios es porque: - Tienes muy mojada la composta - No tienes una buena proporcion de verdes y cafes y probablemente debas agregar mas cafes como papel, tierra de hojas, etc

No me gustó, las bandejas no encajan bien por lo que los gusanos se escapan por todos los lados, para una lombricompostera de interior eso para mí es un gran problema. Lo devolví

Arrivato puntuale, prodotto di buona qualità e il design lo rende compatibile con un arredamento moderno. Consigliatissimo!